SUCCESS STORIES, AUGUST 2011

August 26, 2011 Success Stories

Learn how live concerts are run.

“During this lesson with my mentor, I learned about the different types of equipment used for recording and sound adjustments. I also learned a lot about the Patch Bay and was even able to do a few exercises on it that my mentor assigned me while in his studio. We took a little tour around the studio as well, which was helpful. I then learned a lot about where to connect inputs and outputs for an acoustic source. I had a lot of fun for this session. The next day I ended up going into the city for a concert and saw mentor there. He got to show me “behind the scenes” and what they do and how they record a live show as well as the equipment they use. It was a real treat!”
— Amanda Pantell, Basking Ridge, New Jersey

Learn something new each day while in the Recording Connection.

“At the end of my training lesson with my mentor today we set up a Pro Tools session, and then created some aux tracks within it. Then I selected a delay and routed it in to bus 1-2 on the aux track. Next I proceeded to route the aux delay to the outs 1-2 on the first and second bass drum track. Once the routing was complete I adjusted the delay timing to about 55ms and increased the feed back to about 30% to give it a nice echoing effect with a good fade off. Finally, I mixed the wet signal back in with the dry one and use a bit of automation to enable the delay at the beginning of each measure. I played back the augmented track and the effect really gave it some depth and movement. I really wanted to emphasize how pleased I am with the Recording Connection program, my mentor, and the curriculum that was assigned to me by the program.  I am always learning something new every day and I always leave the studio with a big smile on my face.”
— Jeff Franks, Arvada, Colorado

Learn how recording studios are run in their day-to-day activities.

“This week with my mentor I started going two times per week. The first day we reviewed my lesson assigned by the Recording Connection, which was on Patch Bays. It also helped to set up a session for music for a new movie in production that my mentor is working on. I also got to help set up for a rehearsal session. Then, two days later I went into the studio and it was so active and much faster paced. I actually helped another engineer at my mentors’ studio. There was a session of young musicians that were brought in by their music teachers to try and record three songs. I basically acted as the other engineers, as well as the engineers’ assistant during every aspect of recording. I helped set up all the amps and drums and also set up the go-bo’s in the live room to help isolate the instruments. I did some drum repairs as well when the kick drum pedal came apart at one point. In between songs or take I would help to adjust microphones and also make sure that the amps were on standby when musicians were plugging in and unplugging their instruments. When all the recording was finished I broke down the set up and watched Matt mix the recordings a little. It was very productive and fast paced and I feel like I learned in the thick of things in a high pressure situation. It was a very good experience.”
— Matthew Runciman, South Orange, New Jersey

Learn by doing.

“At the studio with my mentor today, I watched him record a band. I helped him gather all the mics and get all the cables ready for him for drums, guitar, and vocals. While recording, my mentor even went over the sound board in a little more in small detail for me. After we finished recording the band I wrapped all the cables up for every microphone and cleaned up wires and microphones. On this day I watched my mentor as he was going over spots in a record with a band and watched him mix the song. I watched him as he was mixing each instrument and would replay the song over and over to see what he could add onto the mix. It was fun to watch and as we went to another song, we had to mic up a guitar amp. My mentor told me to mic the amp and then he would fix what I did wrong. I did and he showed me my mistake and how to correct them. I’ve only been going for two weeks and have learned much already with Max.”
— Stephen Krause, Mahwah, New Jersey

Receive hands-on training.

“This was a great hands-on lesson with my mentor. This lesson revolved around the studio’s console and how to set up a session in Pro Tools. This was probably the lesson containing the most information. I’m still researching about the different types of busses and the different patch bay connections, but I’m learning a lot and I’m having fun. My mentor also talked about how to send certain tracks from the mixer to effects devices. I haven’t mastered everything in this lesson yet, but I’m taking it, taking notes, and researching on my own as well. This was a good lesson.”
— Nathan Zachar, Oxford, Michigan

August 19, 2011 Success Stories

Work on your own music with the help of your Recording Connection mentors.

“Again my mentors’ artist came in to the studio to finalize a few songs. There were a bunch of people in the recording room talking about music and showing each other some new songs that artists we may not have all been familiar with had released. It was just a great day. From here on out am going to get as much practice with the console and protocols as possible. I plan on sticking around for a while in the studio so I can assist the artist to figure out who she is as an artist and help her to convert her feelings into words. This is becoming a great set of projects for me. I also have a few songs to write for myself that some of the other associates want to work with me on. I have a feeling something great is going to happen soon so I am keeping my fingers crossed.”
— Larry Johnson, Stratford, Connecticut

Let your mentor inspire you to continue your growth within the music industry.

“This week with my mentor was a continuation of my last session. I got to play bass for two hours. I had started an idea last week that my mentor was helping me develop. I spent the whole week working on this riff and coming up with little things to add to it. After I had what I thought was the real deal I showed up today to see my mentor and was very confidant that I had nailed this sucker down. As per usual, my mentor had a few suggestions on how I could improve it. He has a way of breaking down things to their rawest forms. He inspires me to look at things in a different light. It is always positive and always helpful. I can’t wait to get to work on my vocals next week. It is always fun to have someone as experienced as my mentor helping me develop not only as a studio engineer but also as a musician. I love this stuff.”
— Jeremie Killinger, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Learn by doing.

“Last week’s class was awesome. My mentor showed me around the mixer boards and everything from analog to digital. What was great was the fact that he showed me the more relevant functions of the hardware. This is great for me to focus on what is important if I were to be put on the spot. We definitely set up a good mentor to student relationship/bond. I trust my mentors’ knowledge on what he knows, and with that in mind, it helps me learn more comfortably and keeps me more focused on what I must know, as an aspiring producer. We went over the input controls, sub grouping, virtual mixing and a few more things about mixing boards. Also, this week with my mentor was the first time I went in more as a ‘producer’, as opposed to the student. I came to class to my mentor actually playing the horn to one of my tunes. I feel very blessed to where this all is taking me. I’ve been meeting more people in the music game, and I hope to not let any of these doors of opportunities close out on me.”
— Albert Flordeliza, Burlington, New Jersey

Business network with the professionals and become part of your mentors’ team.

“I’m currently in my mentors’ studio working on the twelfth week, which is signal processing. There is so much to know about signal processing and compressors so I have been spending a lot of time in the studio trying to pick up on this. By far I think this is the most challenging lesson I’ve done. Also with my mentor I have recently had the chance to work with some interesting artists that are quite well known. I got to know them personally and they are all very good people to work with. I’m also engineering an internet radio show every Friday now with one of my mentors’ clients. This is a great learning experience for me and my mentor also introduced me to a very useful resource, a man who works for puts together the Coachella festival every year, and who also organizes other events in Southern California. My mentor and I might start working together with this new contact, organizing our own events with another one of the interns, who is also a DJ producer. I am now the personal assistant for my mentor whenever there’s a session, as he knows he can count on me.”
— Gonzalo Soto, Long Beach, California

Work as part of the team in a professional recording studio.

“A lot of things have been happening this week with my mentor. I had a recording session this weekend with him, and the standard lesson the following day where I reviewed in detail all the reading I was assigned by the Recording Connection. Now that I have received my Pro Tools we have moved onto patch bays and the beginning of signal flow. We discussed patch bays and how they work, as well as sort of conducted a mini-lab. We mic’d up a guitar cabinet as well as a bass cabinet and subsequently patched this equipment in the patch bay. Then, that weekend, a 2-piece band also came into my mentor’s studio, which I had to mic up and set up a drum kit and a guitar rig. The set-up and dialing in of tones and levels took a couple hours and the rest of the time was spent recording. We experimented with micing up more guitar rigs and also a bass amp. Overall, learned how vital of a device the patch bay is and also learned about its versatility and the multitude of different things you could do with it. The session went quite well; The artists seemed quite satisfied so that signifies that it was a good session and everything went smoothly. For my lesson with my mentor, a member of the 2-piece band returned to do more guitar and bass tracks and so I set up for an overdubbing session. That also went well and we continued to utilize the patch bay in order to join the numerous signals together. I have been gradually staying much later for the lessons for the past couple of weeks and I am thoroughly enjoying it. There is a great atmosphere at the studio and the staff there are really good people as well.”
— Nick Aufiero, Brick, New Jersey

Understand the Pro Tool basics with the training provided by your Recording Connection mentor.

“Today was digital auto basic’s with my mentor. We went over lesson number two that was assigned to me by the Recording Connection, while at the same time, going over important digital auto points such as Binary coding, Sampling rate and bits. Once everything from my reading started to making more sense with my mentors’ review, we moved into different kinds of music files. Next, I got some hands-on action introduced to me as I was introduced to the mobile music truck. In the mobile truck I got my first look at Pro Tools with a basic tools overview. We used Pro Tools to get samples of different sounds to compare different kinds of waveforms with different sound frequencies such as 20 Hz – 20 kHz. Digital auto was a really important lesson and I feel l got a lot out of it as I look forward to my next upcoming lessons.”
— Steven Scott, Thornton, Colorado

August 12, 2011 Success Stories

Shoot music videos with your Recording Connection mentor.

“In the beginning of my lesson with my mentor this week we went over Microphone Placement. I have been looking forward to this lesson because mic placement is really important to the sound of your tracks. However you want the track to sound is how you place your microphones. My mentor proceeded to show me the different techniques used for recording. He showed me what would be best for certain recordings with all different kinds of music. He was showing me how to mic a guitar amps, a drum kit, and also the piano. Whatever sound you are looking for is how you should place your mics. After my lesson with my mentor I got to stay and hang out for awhile because they were shooting a music video that my mentor was going to be in. My mentor just wrote a song with a singer and they were shooting part of the video later that night. So, I wanted to help them with whatever they needed because I had never seen a music video been shot before. I thought that it was very cool how the whole process works when shooting a music video.”
— Kimberly Knutsen, Wappingers Falls, New York

Receive hands-on training from the experts in the recording industry.

“After completing week four with my mentor, I felt much more comfortable and confident in the studio. Patch Bay and Signal Flow are not difficult conceptually and in application, however, the understanding of how to use each is facilitated by continual use in different applications/scenarios. In the lesson my mentor and I worked on sending audio and midi through different processors with the use of the patch bay. Through the intense hands-on experience in this lesson, and the overall depth of instruction, I have gained an incredibly increased understanding of the subject matter and its applications in this lesson.”
— Tim Vorderstrasse, Midland Park, New Jersey

Work one-on-one with your own professional mentor.

“This week with my mentor I got to take a break from the bookwork assignments and technical discussion, and got to do what I love doing the most, PLAY MUSIC. My mentor decided I had been working hard enough to deserve to do something fun. We started working on laying down one of my own songs. We started a few weeks ago by laying down a scratch track. This week I got to do a guitar track and a vocal track. That is my comfort zone. Then I got to play bass on my track. This is where I hit a brick wall. I couldn’t quite capture what I wanted to, so my mentor gave me some direction, and best of all, pointers on how I could improve it. IT WAS SOOO MUCH FUN. I love sitting down with a seasoned musician and trading licks. Especially with a musician of my mentors’ caliber. He is so knowledgeable of all things music and it blows my mind. He does bust my chops a lot about my playing, but it is always in a constructive way and it always leaves me walking away a better player. I could not have asked for a better mentor, he understands me and how I learn things. I can’t wait until next week so I can work in the studio some more. There is no better experience for me, really.”
— Jeremie Killinger, Albuquerque, New Mexico

With dedication and hard work comes success.

“This week was my first week in the Recording Connection with my mentor and it was awesome, informational, and a wakeup call. This week’s awesomeness is owed to my brilliant mentor. He welcomed me with the utmost respect and couldn’t be nicer. He also, sometimes without even speaking, motivates me to be the best audio engineer I can be. I do not know him on close-personal level yet, however, from what I know about him now I believe he can be more than just a mentor but an idol of mine and one day a loyal friend. This week was informational because I learned a lot about the recording process and how it actually works from the producers’ aspect to the talented artists’. Also I learned some of the important equipment and its specific but wide-ranged capabilities. I got to meet the co-owner as well, who spoke to me about the broad details of studio management and maintenance as well. More than anything this first week was a wakeup call. Like the great Kanye West says “I look in the mirror, and I’m my only opponent.” This line best describes my wakeup call because it’s true that the only thing stopping me from achieving success and following my dreams is myself. It is going to take a lot of hard work and determination but I am ready to learn everything I can and find my own path in the music industry.”
— Michael Possemato, Waterbury, Connecticut

August 5, 2011 Success Stories

Receive one-on-one Pro Tools training.

“Today with my mentor we talked about the different plug-ins compatible with Pro Tools. We covered TDM, RTAS, and Audio Suite Plug-Ins. During my training my mentor showed me various plug-ins that I’ll be receiving with my very own Pro Tools LE that the Recording Connection is providing me, and how it can change the sound of your recorded audio. I’m excited about diving into Pro Tools and learning as much as I can and I can truly say I am receiving great experience and training over at my mentors’ recording Company.”
— Chris Dodds, Westminster, California

Learn how to record jazz bands in a professional recording studio.

“This training lesson with my mentor was very in-depth. During our session we covered the different patch bay connections, discussing the pros and cons of each one, and I am now getting a good feel for the console and how things work. I also learned about balanced and unbalanced connections and when it in necessary to use them. This lesson definitely had a lot of information in it that was very useful. The following day I also sat in on my second day of the week, where I recording a jazz band at my mentors’ studio. I am developing a better understanding of how to run a session. I mic’d a drum set and connected it to the input box, and even sat in the studio alone with the band for a while. This session was a lot of fun and I am really looking forward to my next one.”
— Nathan Zachar, Oxford, Michigan

Learn from your mentors’ past experiences in the music industry.

“This week my mentor and I started out as a review of my reading material assigned by the Recording Connection. We went over the answers to my quiz as well, and my mentor made sure that I understood the material. We spent the rest of our time together today talking about music, which is a discussion both my mentor and I could have all night, really. I kind of sparked this conversation to pick his brain about the industry, from his years of experience as both a musician, a live sound engineer, and as a studio engineer. He has had so many experiences in so many situations, I couldn’t help but want, and need, to hear how the music business has been for him for so many years. I really like how candid he is with me about the business. I see a lot of myself in him and I hope that my future could even remotely resemble his. He has found a way to make a living with music and sound in many ways and in many different areas of the business I know I can benefit from all of his experiences. We talked about the dynamics of playing in bands, the common ways to set up live sound systems and common problems that come with it, and how to solve them. I swear this guy has done just about everything that has to do with sound. Then we got to talk about songwriting, and what it means in the studio. Since this is what I do with most of my time, I really enjoyed this discussion. He also gave me a good insight on what I am doing and what I plan to do in the future. Next week we are going to work on a song, I like where this is going.”
— Jeremie Killinger, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Train to become a professional audio engineer.

“I am learning a lot from my mentor, he is a very good mentor. It’s a perfect match. All the different engineers in the studio always come bearing talents and skills that are very resourceful to me. My mentor’s studio represents the music industry and I plan on learning a lot from all my mentors’, starting with audio engineering all the way to running my own recording studio. So far so good, and I am on my way to becoming an audio engineer with the help of the Recording Connection, as well as also learning the art of networking.”
— Nobe General, Saint Albans, New York

Work one-on-one in your mentors’ recording control room.

“This lesson with my mentor was the most exciting so far, as I got to go into the live room and examine some heavy duty mics. Some of the gear my mentor has is vintage and valued over 10 thousand dollars, and he even let me hold it! We went over each mic and what its tonal qualities were, and when each one would be used. The most interesting part of this lesson was that after my mentor and I concluded our lesson review, we went over the mics individually, then sat in the control room and listened to some projects my mentor has been working on, as well as some more famous stuff (namely John Mayer) in order to determine what kind of mics were used in each setting. I am proud to say that I was right every time in determining which mic was used for each different song. I never realized that simply changing a microphone can alter the overall sound of the performance. I went back to my mentors’ studio the following day for an extra session.”
— Kyle McPherson, Wesley Chapel, Florida

Sit in on professional recording sessions with your mentor.

“In week 5 with my mentor I was introduced to the console, Common Systems and functions, as well as went further into signal flow. My mentor showed me exactly how signal flow works throughout the console. We talked about the four types of buses (Mix, Solo, Auxiliary, & Individual) and when which one is appropriate for the task at hand. We did a Signal Flow Drill almost like a mock studio session learning how and where the signal flow is going and how to send it to and from tape. After the lesson I sat in and observed my mentor in a session with two Atlanta area Rap artists who recorded three songs. This was a very cool experience, my mentor was sure to show me how things work in Pro Tools which was also very good. Looking forward to my next lesson/session as always.”
— Michael Dibble, Rochester, Michigan